It is in the home-centre that we are first taught “such kisses as belong to early days;” it is there that the maternal embrace proves an efficacious restorative for infantile grievances.
“Who was it caught me when I fell,
And kissed the place to make it well?
My mother.”
The boy goes forth from the juvenile attractions of the Kiss-in-the-Ring to the later allurements of the mistletoe bough; the youth of larger growth finds exhilaration in the sportiveness that incites him to
“Catch the white-handed nymphs in shady places,
And woo sweet kisses from averted faces.”
As the years glide away, destiny leads him to
“The overture kiss to the opera of love;”